Venakaiah Naidu NEW DELHI: Speedy, safe and sustainable construction using prefabricated alternative technologies is the need of the hour to meet the housing targets under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana and programmes of state governments, urban development minister Venakaiah Naidu said on Wednesday.

The ministry of housing and urban poverty alleviation (HUPA) has also directed Central Public Works Department (CPWD), Delhi Development Authority (DDA) and National Buildings Construction Corporation (NBCC) to mandatorily adopt three alternative technologies for projects of Rs 100 crore each and above.

"With increase in demand, prefabricated construction technologies would become even more cost effective and they need to be promoted in a big way," Naidu said while inaugurating ‘HPL Housing Technology Park’ in the national capital on Wednesday. The park showcases 11 houses built with different alternative technologies.

About two crore dwelling units are to be built in urban areas and about four crore units in rural areas to enable housing for economically weaker sections and low income groups.

The minister informed the government is taking several measures to popularize these technologies. "These technologies are now being used in big housing projects and need to be adopted for individual and small scale housing projects," he said.

The ministry of HUPA is also in talks with the ministry of defence for building two lakh houses with alternative technologies for Paramilitary forces.

"Construction of 37,500 such houses is being planned in Mumbai after a successful pilot project of 200 houses," said Nandita Chatterjee, secertary, HUPA.

CPWD has already come out with schedule of rates for three such technologies and Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) would soon include these technologies in the National Building Code, Chatterjee informed.